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During a recent web conference sponsored by Avalere Health, Ralph Brindis, incoming president of the American College of Cardiology, called for health care providers in all areas to increase their use of disease registries as to collect better data on quality and performance.

According to Brindis, the disease registries will “allow timely clinical data to be collected for performance-measure reporting.” He added that the registries would enable the industry to test “performance measures for many stakeholders before they are widely used or accepted.”
In addition, as more health providers use the databases, “the registries would be strengthened in terms of their participation within the community,” Brindis said. In the end, increased usage could help automate data entry and help health care providers avoid entering information into inefficient, multiple alternative systems. To put it simply, there needs to be something more unified.
Does your clinic or practice utilize disease registries? Why or why not?

A diet rich in fish, olive oil, yogurt and veggies common in Mediterranean cuisine might help ward off mild cognitive impairment, according to a new study that also suggests such a diet lowers the risk of moving from such mild decline to Alzheimer’s disease, as reported by the Gannett News Service

The study, reported in the journal Archives of Neurology, looked at 1,393 people with healthy brains and 482 with mild cognitive impairment. Among its findings: Over an average of 4½ years of follow-up, 275 of the 1,393 participants who didn’t have mild cognitive impairment developed the condition. Those who had the highest adherence to a Mediterranean diet had a 28 percent lower risk of developing mild impairment than those who strayed farthest from the diet.

“We know from previous research that a healthy diet like this is protective for cardiovascular risk factors like cholesterol, hypertension and diabetes,” says Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas of Columbia University Medical Center in New York. “Now, this current study shows it may help brain function, too.”

Health care providers everywhere will be sure to look into the findings of this study over the course of the next few months, as the search continues for new dietary innovations to be made for the millions of people out there looking to fend off illness and live a better life.